


Desperate Measures

by heyitsmoonyx



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 05:04:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8698108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyitsmoonyx/pseuds/heyitsmoonyx
Summary: James knows Remus is hiding something… and goes the extra mile to try and discover what it is. But the results might not be exactly what he expected.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I am not an English native speaker so I apologize for any grammatical mistake you might find.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter world nor the characters. I just like writing, all credits go to the amazing JKR.

James stared at the plate full of food sitting right in front of him, silently sipping his coffee while Peter sat on the other side of the Gryffindor table, stuffing his face with whatever he could get his hands on. Breakfast was already halfway through and the other half of the Marauders still hadn't even shown their faces.  
It wasn't unusual for Sirius, seeing as he was not a morning person, but Remus, _Perfect Prefect Remus_ , was a whole different story.  
For the last two weeks, Remus had been late for breakfast four times already and once he had even been late for class, and unusual didn't even begin to describe his behaviour. He had been secretive and defensive every time someone brought it up, and James had gotten enough.  
Half an hour before their first class of the day was set to begin, Remus showed up at the Great Hall with Sirius on his tail. The latter looking, as usual, like he just got out of a fashion magazine or one of those muggle rock bands he had become obsessed with, winking at every girl -and a few guys- who looked in his direction. Remus, on the other hand, looked like he had just gotten out of bed and hadn't even checked his uniform.  
James quickly poured a cup of tea and another one of coffee and placed one next to his own and the other right across from him. Remus shot him a grateful smile and took a sip of his hot tea, while Sirius patted James on the back, his mouth already too full to actually speak.

“So, how did you sleep, ladies?” James asked and silently began to count down from ten.

For the first time since they'd known each other, Remus looked like he hadn't even been capable of putting his outfit together; the top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned and his tie was backwards. 

_Nine_

James hadn't even heard him enter the bedroom the night before.

_Eight_

When Peter brought up his lateness, Remus actually blushed.

_Seven_

He kept looking everywhere except to where James and Sirius were seated.

_Six_

He hadn't even took the notes for the Transfiguration test out of his backpack. Perfect Prefect Remus usually went over his notes until right before he entered the classroom.

_Five_

He looked extremely distracted, trying to rearrange his tie without bringing attention to it… and failing miserably.

_Four_

And there were still two weeks left before the full moon so he didn't have a valid excuse.

_Three_

Remus was terrible at keeping things from his friends.

_Two_

James toyed with the almost full vial carefully hidden in his robes’ front pocket, rolling it between his thumb and index fingers. That was going to be fun.

**_One_ **

 

“So… Moony, are you ready for McG’s test?” James asked, casually, and took one last sip of his now almost cold tea.

“I think so.” Remus said, his focus lost somewhere else.

“What happened that you slept in? You seem to be doing that a lot lately, are you feeling alright?”

“I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine, Prongs.”

“Should we drag you to the Infirmary to see Madam Pomfrey?” Peter chimed in and Remus laughed.

“Thanks, Pete but I'm fine, really.”

“So why did you sleep in? You never do.” The shorter boy insisted, half a toast forgotten in his right hand.

“Sirius turned off my alarm clock.” Remus said and seemed to immediately regret it.

At the same time, Sirius turned to pay attention to his best friends’ conversation upon hearing his name.

“Why has my wonderful name been spoken?” He asked, stuffing his mouth with bacon.

“Moony says you turned off his alarm.”

Sirius narrowed his eyes, shot a weird look in Remus’ direction and looked back at James, shrugging.

“I might have been playing with it yesterday and turned it off, yeah.”

 _Liar._ James thought; if there was one person that could see right through Sirius’ bullshit, it was him.

“Why would you be playing with Remus’ alarm clock, Pads?”

“Because it's… fun?” He shrugged again and finished his coffee.

“Whatever you say, dude. We'd better get going or McGonagall will have our arses.” James said and stood up, taking his backpack with him. Peter and Remus followed suit and the three of them dragged Sirius away from the food and to their first class of the day.

“So Remus…” James began, leaving all façade behind. “Who's the lucky girl you've been hooking up with, huh?”

Remus looked clearly shocked and seemed to be trying to fight the urge to answer.

“There's no girl.” He finally mustered, looking relieved.

“What?!” James exclaimed and stopped dead in his tracks, surprised his theory hadn’t been right. “So what are you hiding? Because I know you're hiding something, you are an awful liar.”

Several emotions passed by Remus’ eyes and he opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, clearly trying to choose his next words carefully, and fighting the need to answer without filter.

“I'm… I'm with someone.” He finally said through gritted teeth, his usually calm demeanour tensing with every word. “Prongs, did you put something in my tea?!”

“Don't know what you're talking about, Moony.” James said, feigning innocence, but Remus saw right through it.

“JAMES!”

“So… going back to our previous conversation, are you dating a guy?”

“Yes! Dammit! JAMES CHARLUS POTTER, DID YOU PUT VERITASERUM IN MY BLOODY TEA?!”

“Yes, I did; chill, dude! So you got a boyfriend, huh? Really bad of you not to trust us with that, right Pads?”

“What? Oh, yeah, you're right.” Sirius said weirdly absent minded and took his usual seat on the left side of the classroom, James taking the one next to him, and Remus and Peter the two ahead.

The young werewolf turned around on his seat, his arms resting on the back of the chair, and glared at James, his usually amber eyes turning slightly golden.

“I'm serious, James.”

“No, you're not.” James and Sirius said in unison and high-fived each other.

“Stop it! Why did you put Veritaserum in my breakfast?”

“Who's your boyfriend, Moons?”

“Sirius! Stop changing the subject!”

“Holy pants of Merlin! Are you kidding me?!” He exclaimed, loud enough for the whole room to hear. The surprise made James stand up from his desk with both his arms extended and everyone stared at him.

“Prongs, please sit down.” Sirius whispered, slightly annoyed. “You're embarrassing yourself.”

“You traitors!” James hissed “why didn't you tell me?! I'm supposed to be your best friend!”

“Yes, well best friends don't drug each other!” Remus hissed back, his anger growing with every passing second.

“Don't get your knickers in a twist, Lupin! I gave you half the minimum dose, you've been telling the truth on your own free will for the past ten bloody minutes!”

“Ten points from Gryffindor, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that language in my class, Mr. Potter. Now seat so we can begin.” Professor McGonagall said, his stern gaze focused on James, and the entire room fell silent. She headed to her desk and after a flick of her wrist that erased both blackboards entirely, she spoke to the whole class,“Please only leave your quills and parchment on the desk to take the test. “

After two hours of complete silence and James trying to catch Sirius’ attention while the latter made a whole show of ignoring him, the bell Professor McGonagall had set rang and as f forced by an invisible power, everybody put their quills down so that she could take the tests that magically rolled themselves and flew to her desk.

When every single roll of parchment had been picked up, the professor told them they could leave and everybody picked up their bags and left the room. Remus made a point of taking off as soon as possible, Sirius following suit, both of them ignoring every call from James.

James got to the Gryffindor common room almost ten minutes later, having given up trying to reach Remus and Sirius after following them through six different sets of stairs. When he entered the room, he found them lying on one of the couches, Sirius’ head resting on his boyfriend’s lap, and Remus playing with his hair while reading a book.

The sound of the portrait opening and closing made them look up and a frown immediately replaced Remus’ usually relaxed features, but nobody said a word.

“Oh, come on! Are you going to give me the cold shoulder now?” James asked, throwing his bag on the nearest chair.

“You could have asked, you know?” Remus said, in almost a whisper. “You didn’t need to do such a shitty thing.”

James rolled his eyes, and Sirius kept silence, staring at the tall ceiling.

“It wasn’t such a big deal… why didn’t you tell me?”

Sirius suddenly stood up, his grey eyes darker than ever and faced James.

“Maybe because it’s not all about you, James! And I wanted to enjoy being with my fucking boyfriend without having to worry about the rest of the fucking world!”

“I’m not the rest of the fucking world! I’m supposed to be your best friend!”

“See! This is exactly what I was talking about! It all has to revolve around you”

Remus sighed, closed the book and placed it on the coffee table in front of him.

“It has nothing to do with you, James, stop being so bloody self-absorbed! We were going to tell you when we were ready, but you violated both our decisions and our privacy!”

“Why is it such a big deal? It was just a tiny dose of Veritaserum, we’ve done pranks way worse than that.”

Remus shook his head and took a deep breath. It was clear that he was trying not to get too mad about the whole situation, but James made it harder with every word he said.

“But we’ve never screwed with our friends’ trust! Did you ever stop to consider what would have happened if someone had approached me and asked me something that could have led to me talking about my furry little problem?”

“I… I didn’t.” James whispered, having the decency of looking quite ashamed, and stared down at the floor.

“That’s your problem, Prongs. You need to start thinking about how your actions can affect others before going through with them.”

“You’re right, I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Just get your head out of your fucking arse.” Sirius mumbled and went back to his previous spot next to his boyfriend, all anger seemingly forgotten.

“Lily would probably start giving you the time of day if you did.” Remus added and chuckled, mostly to himself.

James smiled and sat down on the chair closest to Remus, glad that the Universe’s course was going back to normal. Right at that moment Peter entered the common room, his bag on one hand and a chocolate muffin on the other.

“I-is everything alright?” He asked cautiously, looking back and forth between his three best friends.

“Why wouldn’t it?”


End file.
